New Infographic Shows the Human Cost of Apple’s iPhone

Here's an infographic that will get your blood boiling and might make you look at your shiny new apple products in dispair. It is called iKill -- perhaps an insensitive name, considering the circumstances -- and it puts into numbers the human rights issues that surround the world's wealthiest company. Apple's been getting a lot of heat lately from the media and activists worldwide about the treatment of employees in factories where their products are made. In response to allegations and sound discoveries of human rights abuses, Apple has enlisted the help of the Fair Labor Association in monitoring their factories for human rights violations. This infographic wraps numbers around the issue and help to point out the two-sided nature of this situation.

It is hard to imagine, but most workers at the Foxconn factories have never seen a working iPhone. They toil day after day for low wages and for long hours to complete one small task that assists in assembling a finished phone. Apple just surpassed Exxon-Mobile as the wealthiest company on Earth. With $108 billion dollars in profits, one would think they could turn some of that cash back to the workers who spend their lives assembling these devices.

Apple’s own investigators found in 2010 that children were working in some of their factories, and they vowed to right that wrong, but some say they haven’t worked hard enough to do so. It has been found that Foxconn workers are forced to be at their stations for many hours of overtime each week, and often the factory neglects to pay them for those extra hours. They are also sometimes exposed to toxic chemicals that can cause serious, life-threatening illness.

In 2010, 18 workers jumped to their deaths from the roof of the Foxconn factory where Apple products are made. The factory has since installed nets to save anyone that hopes to jump. Though television shows and the news media have covered the issue, the fact remains that the world’s wealthiest company is not respecting the very people who make their magic happen.

I wonder how many of those 156 factories belong to Apple at the first place. Who are the Foxconn owners? The truth is more complicated than this story. What is this, a witch hunt on Apple, like they are the bad guys now?
How many years does a worker need for Gucci bag, Prada boots or any other high-end market product?
Apple, like any other buyer has a contract with its suppliers. Yes, I agree that this powerful and rich buyer has a leverage to demand better conditions for workers, and even to walk away from it.
Perhaps, Apple should forget about outsourcing all together and bring the whole production back to North America, or just US, where workers rights are slightly better regulated.

I would recommend that anyone interested in the "evils" of employing people overseas read the book "The Undercover Economist" by Time Harford. Yes, hard working conditions and low pay are not where people should stay, but consider the alternatives.